West Branch Perk Question

5alp

5alp

Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2021
Messages
45
Location
Wyncote, PA
Has it ever been stocked with Brook Trout? I pulled at least a 10 incher our of it today. He slipped out of my net (has a hole) before i could get a pic. But it looked wild to an untrained eye. Also ran into another angler upstream of my location saying he landed a few small brooks as well
 
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Club stocking for a derby or Trout in the Classroom project would be my guess.
 
It has been surveyed at multiple times at various locations, including one, if not two, unnamed tribs at Airport Rd and Huffs Church. No survey ever produced a wild brook trout, so a wild brook trout would be a rare event and there would be no presently known source.
 
Nymph-wristed said:
Club stocking for a derby or Trout in the Classroom project would be my guess.
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The TIC project has switched to rainbow trout away from the state brook trout. Ten inches for a brookie is an interesting size - would it be maybe 3 years old?
 
lestrout said:
The TIC project has switched to rainbow trout away from the state brook trout. Ten inches for a brookie is an interesting size - would it be maybe 3 years old?
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If wild, ten inches would most be 4-6 yrs old in that stream depending on growth rate. I suspect age 5-6. At any rate, at that age the fish should soon perish from natural mortality. Those ages also mean that it could still be a TIC fish, although such long-term survival of those fish would be a major surprise. After all, they are simply PFBC hatchery ST stock.

I also would not rule out private or club stocking of adult ST somewhere on the creek. OP did not say where on the creek the catches took place, such as inside of or outside of the Class A stretch, in the very headwaters around Huffs Church or down somewhere between Rt 100 and Green Lane Rs., which might help narrow down some possibilities.
 
There is a guy that stocks trout above the game land section. his land is heavily posted, he has a nice stretch along that road.
 
There is a landowner stocking. There was a palomino in the game lands in 2020 and I also landed an obvious stocked rainbow.
 
Mike said:
If wild, ten inches would most be 4-6 yrs old in that stream depending on growth rate. I suspect age 5-6. At any rate, at that age the fish should soon perish from natural mortality. Those ages also mean that it could still be a TIC fish, although such long-term survival of those fish would be a major surprise. After all, they are simply PFBC hatchery ST stock.

I also would not rule out private or club stocking of adult ST somewhere on the creek. OP did not say where on the creek the catches took place, such as inside of or outside of the Class A stretch, in the very headwaters around Huffs Church or down somewhere between Rt 100 and Green Lane Rs., which might help narrow down some possibilities.
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Caught it in the Class A section in the gamelands. Fish was sitting in a deep plunge pool where I've pulled out decent browns in the past. Had a vibrant red, bordering on pink underbelly, could that be from pellet feeding?

This was after the big rain event seems likely it could have gotten pushed down into the gamelands.
 
That swimming hole sounds like a great place for stockers pushed downstream to hold up during the floods, and there are barriers downstream that stop upstream migration if I am not mistaken. Sounds like the two previous posters solved the mystery.

I am never surprised where stockers show up, and some of them are beauties. I even harassed Mike about a huge mystery fish in another SEPA crick a few years ago, and he was aware of community stocking on this particular one. Not that it would totally help, and I know there are proposed new laws about filing paperwork that I added my comments to when commenting was open, but it would be nice to have a way to track who is putting fish in these class A creeks, at least the ones buying them from the Commish? I know it's TU stocking some of these creeks, which makes me continue to question how the local missions jibe (Les's chapter not in that mix, of course!) with what the national public relations and Trout magazine claim...
 
troutbert said:
If you cat

Which streams?
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PM me and I will give you a name. The point of having that paper trail is that it would be public knowledge, not dudes on a forum calling out chapters, etc. Not what I am looking to do here, or to hijack OP's post!
 
Nymph-wristed said:
That swimming hole sounds like a great place for stockers pushed downstream to hold up during the floods, and there are barriers downstream that stop upstream migration if I am not mistaken. Sounds like the two previous posters solved the mystery.

I am never surprised where stockers show up, and some of them are beauties. I even harassed Mike about a huge mystery fish in another SEPA crick a few years ago, and he was aware of community stocking on this particular one. Not that it would totally help, and I know there are proposed new laws about filing paperwork that I added my comments to when commenting was open, but it would be nice to have a way to track who is putting fish in these class A creeks, at least the ones buying them from the Commish? I know it's TU stocking some of these creeks, which makes me continue to question how the local missions jibe (Les's chapter not in that mix, of course!) with what the national public relations and Trout magazine claim...
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I'd be very surprised if the local TU chapter is stocking brookies there. There have been TIC programs up that way. Not sure when it was switched to rainbows. The comment that somebody caught or saw a palomino suggest to me that a private party had one of his fish washed downstream.
 
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